


Coal Dust

by hunzberger



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22886779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunzberger/pseuds/hunzberger
Summary: AU. A one-shot collection about Katniss and Gale in the years since they met. Also, what if the Games never happened?:leave comments about what would you want to see in this collection:
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Gale Hawthorne
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Coal Dust

I Morning before the Reaping

Katniss woke up as she usually would, just today she had no obligation to go to school, that thought her nothing, anyways. No, today she had to show up, at exactly midday for her destiny to be decided by a weird Capitol woman with an unnaturally high voice. 

Was she to live or not? Was she to fight other kids to death in order to come back home alive to her family? 

She went straight to the woods to provide some kind of food for the dinner table, whether she was going to sit at it tonight or be on her way to the Capitol. As per usual, she met Gale where she always does, right by the fence at the edge of the District and the two of them, without a word, went on with their morning ritual. After a barely successful hunt, they sat on the rock overlooking the opposite of the greyness of the District both of them grew up in. 

This was the hardest year yet. On one piece of paper, the name of the youngest part of her family was to be written and dropped in a huge glass bowl, along with more than two dozen of hers. She would do anything to burn that small piece of parchment before it even ended up mixed with the other names.

She would never have children. She was never willingly going to go through this once again. And then again, year after year. She feels for Gale and three of his younger siblings. Even her, probably frozen, heart can't think of the moment when the small, happy Posy, who always brings a smile to her face will stand in front of the Justice Building and fear for her name being called out. She is even more scared for Gale who was probably the sole reason that she and along with her, the rest of his family were alive and fairly well. He helped a 13-year-old girl through the roughest winter of her life. And then all the rough years after that.

Gale felt the same with his younger brother being the same age as Prim, but the anger, rather than beating him down fired up thoughts that couldn't be uttered out loud. At least not now. 

It was a sunny day that brought anger in her. She felt like the whole world was ridiculing the Seam rats trying to survive day after day. 

Gratefully it was Gale's last games but at the same time, he was more in danger than ever before. She physically shook at the thought that she could be sitting alone right here on this rock less than 24 hours away. That one of the most stable things in her life could just go away and maybe never come back. It was truly scary, and unimaginable. 

He nudged her shoulder.

"Ready to get all pretty Catnip?" he asked with a serious face. She just shook her head and looked in the distance. 

"I wish we could run and never stop, never turn our heads back," he said barely above whisper looking over the green melting into the blue sky and the fog lifting somewhere in between. 

"We could do it," he continued, sincerely, almost ready to jump on his feet right that moment. But he knew that she would never do it, however hard, he also knew, she wanted. She would never leave her, or even his, family behind. She would never let them starve or be killed because of the mistakes they made. 

"Imagine bringing all the kids along with us," he said, getting lost in his thoughts. He could hear how happy they could be for maybe an hour or two, maybe even the whole afternoon, running around the green grass that never grew in the Seam. How they laughed and talked. But he could also hear wild animals chasing after them in the dark, coughs after they got sick because of how cold it gets in the wilderness. No that was never going to happen. They are to spend the rest of their days in the streets covered with the coal dust, eating what they have and trying to stay alive. 

That didn't sit well with him. It made him angry and full of resentment for the world they lived in. Could they never be happy? 

"I wish," she agreed.

He looked over to her. The face he watched grow mature these past few years, the thought he could read right from her eyes. She loved her family, or even, she loved Prim, more than she would ever love herself. She would never willingly let anything happen to her. 

He liked looking at her when she was, and most of the time, when she was not aware of it. Now that he said that in his head, it just sounded stalker-ish, just like that baker's kid had a habit of doing. He noticed him a couple of times in school, during the lunch break. Gale would sometimes join Katniss if her friend, the mayor's daughter, wasn't sitting next to her. He wouldn't usually intrude between the two of them because he liked that she had friends even if that friend was the richest girl in the district. He hated seeing her sitting alone. But that kid, unaware that Gale saw him, kept on stealing glances at Katniss. It made him feel weird. He wanted to run over there and turn his head away from her with his own two hands. The anger he felt the first time it happened took him by surprise, the sheer possessiveness alone was enough to knock him off the chair he was sitting in. He quickly gathered his stuff and told Katniss he forgot to do something before the class started and all but ran away. The only thought he had in his head for the rest of the day was "What the hell?!" 

It's been some time since then and the thoughts like that, he always had when he was near her, became normal. He grew to anticipate every single moment he would spend with her and she kept surprising him by each day passing with the simplest things she would do. The way she moved around the woods, how she held herself against the wold, the face she made while she was aiming, her voice when they silently talked in the early mornings on their way across the fence. How she treated Prim like she bore her. How protective she was, not just towards her sister, but his siblings too. How she cared if they ate or if they were sick. How she cared about his mom probably more than for her own.

Recently he felt like his time with her is running out because he would soon start working in the mines and probably wouldn't have any other time but the Sundays to spend with her. Now, he went hunting with her at the dawn, walked to school with her after that, ate lunch with her and spent as much time in the afternoon he could with her. Everybody started noticing. Everybody but Katniss, it seemed, but it didn't bother him because he was not sure what exactly her reaction would be if he told her everything that has been going on in his head. Gale wondered if there was ever going to be anything between them if he didn't say anything. 

But he couldn't imagine his life without her. The security he felt next to her and the spark every time she looked him in the eyes or they touched. He loved to play with her temper and challenge her, in the woods, or out of them. 

"How many times is your name in today, Gale?" She asked looking straight into his eyes. Katniss would never admit that to him, but she was afraid for his life.

"42." He murmured quietly looking at her. "Our agreement still stands, Catnip? Don't let them starve?" 

"Never." 

She held his intense gaze until it became too much, too quickly and then looked away, making herself busy with the food in her bag she brought from home. She used to be completely resistant to his eyes, his smile, all of him. As the days pass she is becoming more and more aware of him and it bothered her. She wanted him to forever stay her hunting partner but when she thought about how much he wanted a family, how other girls look at him and talk about him in school, she sees life as they have it now going away. He would soon start working in the mines, get married, have a family. Katniss would be an excess part in that picture, she would not belong with him anymore. The thought about Gale in the dark mines underground kept her awake for weeks. She kept on dreaming about losing him over and over again. And each morning she saw him alive and healthy the weight was off her shoulders, but it went round and round. And it confused her.

She thought about getting more independent from the partnership they had. She thought of the ways she could feed her own when Gale would not be there to help her do it. She started paying more attention to how he tied his snares or how he used his knives. She would love to think that he has absolutely nothing to learn from Gale Hawthorne but that would simply not be true. Also, she might shoot a deer but there is no way she could bring the deer to the Hob all by herself. 

Picture of a girl she knew he was seeing at one point, toasting the wedding bread with Gale, however, wouldn't go out of her head. Her life after him started to form itself in front of her eyes. Her life after him started to form itself in front of her eyes. That was not important, his life outside their partnership was not important. But that picture in her head hurt in a way unknown to her. 

After they shared the little food she brought they went back to the Districts, parting their ways at the only crossroads in the Seam. 

"Don't forget, wear something pretty." He said in the evenest tone and hugged her stiff body. Then, just turned and walked away. Was she really about to lose him the moment he stepped foot in those mines?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, y'all.  
> So after reading probably all of the fics about these two ever posted and being heartbroken over and over again, I decided to actually write and post some of my work. They will forever be my OTP so expect nothing super positive to be written about Peeta, I just never liked him enough. I really hope you guys like what I write and leave me recommendations for some next one-shots. This is my way to cure writer's block just because of the level of saltiness that I have in my heart will always provide enough inspiration to write about these two unfortunate souls.  
> *also if somebody is interested in beta reading the chapters before I post them I would be so freaking grateful, ok*


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